Disclaimer: This forum does not endorse nor discourage any survey done by different organizations or persons. It only allows space and a platform for surveys conducted that pertain to community matters.

The question arises: WHO WILL INITIATE THE REFORMS? Most will answer that the Bohra community will do that.
But will they?

I can emphatically state that Bohras are a weak-kneed and spineless community. Kothar's forces have ensnared the community in a strait jacket from which Bohras cannot escape. Bohras' social and communal activities revolve around Masjid, Waaz, Daris, Halka, Sabak, Mojiza, Barakat, etc. Over the last many years Kothar has cleverly channeled this focus to its advantage.

The aura of infallibility, deliverance of Jannat, absolvement of sins, heavenly guidance in endeavours, and so on has hyptonised most Bohras. It is a mammoth task to swing a community with such ingrained faith.

A few people, me among them, sincerely believe that we do not Dais, PERIOD.

This is a very good initiative and an excellent idea. Collecting information is always a good place to start, because if we want reform and policy shifts, then these have to be informed by evidence (which is what this survey is all about).

I'd like to make four suggestions to the Admin and to AliZahra to improve on this important effort:

1. If you want a truly representative sample, then this survey needs to happen on a different website/platform. The aim should be to get responses from both the "progressive/reform" side as well as the "orthodox" side. This way, we have a truly representative sample. Many orthodox bohras know this website and keep away from it because it belongs to the progressive/reform side. Also, many of the "progressive/reform" side people don't visit this site regularly. The survey should be carried out on an anonymous platform that has a wide reach like www.surveymonkey.com. (Or any other anonymous survey platforms). Once the survey is online, the weblink can be shared via all social media to have the widest reach (email, whatsapp, sms, twitter, facebook, etc).

2. Before such a survey is carried out, there needs to be more questions looking at assessing other reform aspects - so that we can really make good analysis of data. What I'm saying is that a survey based on one question has limited effect.

3. Let us collectively think through what the survey questions should be (everyone should contribute) and then we can consolidate the collected questions and come up with a solid survey that has involved a wide consultation.

4. I'm certain that both sides (Mufaddal and Qutbuddin) are watching the discussions on this site. So the results of a well thought out survey will help to make the policy-makers see what the people are really thinking.

I have some experience with surveys and I'm happy to help but only if others also join in. For the best results, this has to be a collective effort.

Actually, a similar survey should be conducted on FatemiDawat.com website if it hasn't been already. And there should be no registration requirement to take the survey. It should be open to anyone. Most people will stay away if you ask them for their email addresses. Maybe the Admin on this website should do a survey that doesn't require registration.

Here are some other aspects that could be included in the anonymous survey:

To understand the type of respondent (respondent profile), the following questions could be included (without risking the identity of the person being found out via proxy information i.e. the respondent should feel comfortable to answer such questions):
1. Are you male or female?
2. What is your income bracket? (e.g. monthly income USD 100 - 1000; 1001 - 5000; 5001 - 10,000; 10,001 - above)
3. Type of country you live in (e.g. Low income, middle income, high income)
4. And other appropriate questions that others may suggest

On the main topic:
We need to unpack what "transparency and accountability" means. Therefore we could include questions such as:
1. Should the local jamaat administration officials (e.g. treasurer, secretary, etc) be elected directly by the local community? (yes/no)
2. How often should local elections be held? (once a year, once every two years, once every three years, etc)
3. Should the local jamaat administration publish the community's financial overview (income collected, funds spent, etc) once a year? (yes/no)
4. Should all funds be collected from individuals according to Islamic rules and regulations? (yes/no)
etc etc... there can be many questions added.

However, the survey should not have to many questions, otherwise it will put people off (becasue people are busy). It should take about 5-10 minutes to complete so we could have a maximum of 10 well-thought-out questions.

Shukria "gulab jamun" and "anajmi" for your valuable input
This is my initiative with the sole purpose of establishing how much support we have for the Reform Agenda, more so now in view of the current crisis - hence the initial question was broad based and I agree with both of you on how we can make this more realistic and meaningful - I am ok with you "gulab jamun", organizing such an effort and you may start as soon as possible and please keep us informed of the progress and thank you again and may Allah Subhanahu bless you for your efforts - "gulab jamun" please note "anajmi's" suggestion of putting the survey also on "FatemiDawat.com"

Thank you everyone for your comments. A similar attempt was made not long time ago to put out a survey like this but nothing came of it. In anyone has more questions please post them here, and let's seriously finalize the questionnaire so that we can put out the survey as soon as we can. Thank you gulab jamun for your offer for help, yes suveymonkey would be a good tool to use for this campaign.
Thanks again everyone.

anajmi wrote:Actually, a similar survey should be conducted on FatemiDawat.com website if it hasn't been already. And there should be no registration requirement to take the survey. It should be open to anyone. Most people will stay away if you ask them for their email addresses. Maybe the Admin on this website should do a survey that doesn't require registration.

Shukran "anajmi" for this suggestion. I would suggest to place the survey on surveymonkey and send an email to the Administrator of the Fatemidawat website to include the link on their website. The aim should be to get responses from both the "progressive/reform" side as well as the "orthodox" side. This way, we have a truly representative sample. Many orthodox bohras know the Fatemidawat website and keep away from it because it belongs to the Qutbuddin side.

Regarding your other concerns:
Surveymonkey does not require the respondent to do any registration
Surveymonkey does not require the respondent to provide their email addresses

Actually, I believe that the surveymonkey survey includes a anonymity clarification indicating that they do not collect any personal data i.e. email, IP address, etc, etc.

Admin wrote:Thank you everyone for your comments. A similar attempt was made not long time ago to put out a survey like this but nothing came of it. In anyone has more questions please post them here, and let's seriously finalize the questionnaire so that we can put out the survey as soon as we can. Thank you gulab jamun for your offer for help, yes suveymonkey would be a good tool to use for this campaign.
Thanks again everyone.

Shukran Admin for this information. Do you have the previous survey information (e.g. the questionnaire, the results, etc)? It would be useful to get some information on the previous survey - especially to understand why it did not work and most importantly to know what we can do better/differently so that our current attempt succeeds.

gulab jamun wrote:Here are some other aspects that could be included in the anonymous survey:

To understand the type of respondent (respondent profile), the following questions could be included (without risking the identity of the person being found out via proxy information i.e. the respondent should feel comfortable to answer such questions):
1. Are you male or female?
2. What is your income bracket? (e.g. monthly income USD 100 - 1000; 1001 - 5000; 5001 - 10,000; 10,001 - above)
3. Type of country you live in (e.g. Low income, middle income, high income)
4. And other appropriate questions that others may suggest

On the main topic:
We need to unpack what "transparency and accountability" means. Therefore we could include questions such as:
1. Should the local jamaat administration officials (e.g. treasurer, secretary, etc) be elected directly by the local community? (yes/no)
2. How often should local elections be held? (once a year, once every two years, once every three years, etc)
3. Should the local jamaat administration publish the community's financial overview (income collected, funds spent, etc) once a year? (yes/no)
4. Should all funds be collected from individuals according to Islamic rules and regulations? (yes/no)
etc etc... there can be many questions added.

However, the survey should not have to many questions, otherwise it will put people off (because people are busy). It should take about 5-10 minutes to complete so we could have a maximum of 10 well-thought-out questions.

Looking forward to everyone's guidance on this.

To understand the type of respondent (respondent profile), what about adding a question like:
Who do you currently follow?
a) Khuzema Qutbuddin
b) Mufaddal Saifuddin
c) Not sure at the moment
d) None of the above

The question probably does need improvement (your help is needed here!), but the purpose of this question is to get a better understanding of the respondent profile.

Would it be possible to place this topic which falls under the "Global announcements" section of the forum to appear on the homepage (i.e. start page) please? We are not getting much comments and responses because it is a little bit "hidden" (i.e. one has to click on "Forum" to get here).

It would be really great if many people knew about this initiative and also made their comments and suggestions on how to do it. Its basically also part of the whole awareness raising that a large-scale survey is about to be conducted. More awareness and discussion on this topic means more respondents on the survey.

gulab jamun - I do not think we should "complicate" the survey beyond the broad agenda of reforms - if we bring in personalities into it and because of present sensitivities/emotions, they might be "put off" - so, let us avoid personality selection

very good initiative. I fully support the idea. I will request each and every one who visit this site to please cast your vote. if we could garner 1000 votes it will make a huge difference. one suggestion to Admin, if you can devise something for visitor to cast vote without being member. there are thousands of visitor to this site but very few are members. ip address filter will prevent duplicate voting.

Asalaam aleikum everyone. I have placed the questions into a survey format and this is how it looks (see below). I have given the survey a title and changed the questions slightly. Please send me your comments.

Understanding our community's needs and expectations

*1. Are you male or female?
Male
Female

*2. What is your age?
10 to 17
18 to 24
25 to 34
35 to 44
45 to 54
55 to 64
65 to 74
75 or older

*4. Which continent do you live in?
Asia
Africa
North America
South America
Antarctica
Europe
Australia

5. Should the local Jamaat administration officials (e.g. treasurer, secretary, etc) be elected directly by the local community?
Yes
No

6. How often should local elections be held?
Once a year
Once every two years
Once every three years
Once every four years
Once every five years

7. Should the local Jamaat administration publish the community's financial overview i.e. income collected, funds spent, etc. periodically (e.g. once a year)?
Yes
No
No need to publish the financial overview because I trust my Jamaat's financial management system

8. Collection of funds:
Currently, most funds collected from individuals is being done according to Islamic rules and regulations.
Currently, most funds collected from individuals is NOT being done according to Islamic rules and regulations.

Just a question to everyone; As I was reading some of the information on how to conduct a successful survey, I started to think about the following:

I'm certain that the survey will yield interesting results, but what can be done with the results of the survey? I need your help to think through what kind of actions can be taken using the results of the survey.

This is a good initiative. My suggestion would be to remove the following questions

3. household income
4. Which continent
6. Frequency of elections

The answers these questions will yield are not going to be very useful for our purpose. The objective is to understand the mood and attitude of Bohras to the basic issues facing them.
So it is better to keep it simple, and keep to the questions which affect Bohras lives on a daily basis. Here is the updated list:

Understanding our community's needs and expectations

1. Are you male or female?
Male
Female

2. What is your age?
10 to 17
18 to 24
25 to 34
35 to 44
45 to 54
55 to 64
65 to 74
75 or older

3. Should the local Jamaat administration officials (e.g. treasurer, secretary, etc) be elected directly by the local community?
Yes
No

4. Should the local Jamaat administration publish the community's financial overview i.e. income collected, funds spent, etc. every year?
Yes
No

I am agreeable to the revised draft presented by Humsafar
As to gulab jamun's questions about what can be done with the results of the survey and what kind of actions can be taken using the results of the survey, I think we can address these matters after looking at the results of the survey

The Dawat does need reforms. What kind, issues of reforms is what we should debate and try to have a shortlist possibly by identifying key reforms from discussion and its importance - we could use ranked survey issue and weight given.

A suggestion we can have educational level as a demographic survey it would be a good insight on whether Educational level determines whether our community needs reforms.